| Reviews for Savage Circus's Of Doom and Death |
| Of Highs And Lows - 70% |
| Written by Nightrunner
on November 6th, 2009
|
| OK, we all know the story of this band, what other bands the members are playing in, who their past drummer is and replacement members that have followed. So let’s now instead focus on this, Savage Circus’ 2nd album “Of Doom And Death”, which is now here 4 years after their debutalbum...and it pretty much brings more of the same. We who know the band and has heard them before knows that we’re dealing with music that sounds like a mixture of early Blind Guardian and Iron Savior – there’s no denying, it is a fact, and this time around there’s an extra spice of the later mentioned band. It feels in general like the songs are tried to be more groovy (more traditional metal, if you like) but seen to the big picture, it’s no drastic changes/development. It’s still big backing choirs, lots of catchy melodies, long songs with long soloparts, tempo-changes, traditional and quite simple riffing. The structures and build-up of the songs is following the same concept as on the debut. Listening through the whole album from beginning to end can be compared with a rollercoaster ride. The highs and lows are widely spread out here, with one or two good songs, often followed rapidly by a weak song. First song of the album, the titletrack, is a variated story. Fast intro, leading into heavy chugging verses and is followed by many different passages and tempos. A really nice song, even if the chorus is weak. The grim sounding “ooh-ooh-ooh”-parts are the song’s highlight. Other good songs can be found in “The Ordeal” with it’s nice chorus and guitarwork, the heavy “Chasing The Rainbow” (reminds of Iron Savior), “Legend (Of Leto II) whom has a fantastic yet short intro, and is a heavy one. Weak chorus, though. Last but not least, the best song of the album: “From The Ashes”. Here the guys really nailed it. Heavy intro, with almost thrashy riffs, then taking down the tempo in the verses (similar with the ones in the debuts “Ghost Story”) and a soaring melodic chorus that get stuck in your head. The only song on here that has good parts all way through. On the more negative side among the songs we have for example the deepest bottom in the shitty ballad “Ballad Of Susan”. I’ve read people saying it’s majestic and epic, I cannot find either of it in this song. The worst song made by this band so far. The ending song, instrumental “Dreamland” is very unnecessary, feels like they threw it in there just to have more tracks or something, and doesn’t provide much of interest. “Empire” and “Devil’s Spawn” doesn’t have much either that you will go bananas over, just so-so songs that you will get tired of before the song is over, and the lastmentioned sounds like a B-side Iron Savior-song. The band performances is in top form, the vocals of Jens Carlsson is brilliant as usual, there’s great work on the guitars by Emil and Piet, and the drums of Mike is simple laid – but creates a solid ground. The production is quite compressed and the drums sounds a bit farty – while the guitars on the other hand are raw and screams ‘metal’. Piet did a good job with the guitarsound. It is like that, here and there “Of Doom And Death” really have it’s nice moments. There is no groundbreaking stuff, there is not much originality, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that always. But problem is that it comes a ladle of weak moments here and there too, and because of this the album cannot reach the higher ratings. It is as you maybe have understood, an awfully inconsistent album on many plains, as described, and I gotta say that is is weaker than it’s bigger brother, the debut “Dreamland Manor”. Still, this is absolutely a OK release and should please any fan of Power Metal...at least for a while. 3 best songs: “From The Ashes” - “Of Doom And Death” - “Chasing The Rainbow” |
| As generic as they come. - 40% |
| Written by Empyreal
on November 3rd, 2009
|
| Hey, I didn’t know Blind Guardian had released a new album! And it even sounds like they’re returning to their speed metal days from the 80s from the opening riffs of the first song. Boy, with modern production and their heightened experience in songwriting since then, this ought to be a real killer! I’m really excited now! …wait a second. Savage Circus? That band that ex-drummer Thomen Staunch formed after he left Blind Guardian? That band that was intended to sound, uh, exactly the same as old Blind Guardian, with no creativity or unique thoughts put into the compositions at all? That band that could probably just steal Blind Guardian’s old songs in their entirety, with no changes at all, and pass them off as ‘new’ to people who would use the whole ‘you don’t have to be original to be good’ defense? Fuck, this is going to suck. Yes, this is Of Doom and Death, the pointless follow up to the original pointless Savage Circus album from 2005. To add to the pointlessness, Thomen Staunch isn’t even in the band anymore, leaving Jens Carlsson and Piet Sielck to churn out music that is in no way different from the music they play with their own bands. If you ever wanted generic Power Metal, this is it. Right down to its core this is generic and stale, from the Iron Savior production via Sielck to the shiny guitar leads and riffs to Jens Carlsson’s almost criminal aping of Hansi Kursch’s bard-like wail. Seriously, there is no way he developed that singing style without listening to Somewhere Far Beyond in his sleep every night after it was released. It would be one thing if he at least tried to sound like he did in Persuader with the lower growls and the different singing style at times, but here it’s just uninspired Kursch impersonation after uninspired Kursch impersonation, like he sang this stuff on his lunch break. The vocal lines here aren’t awful, but they’re not really all that memorable and they just don’t carry any kind of oomph to them. Very droll. And what’s this? They wrote a bunch of seven minute songs? What kind of dehumanizing torture is this? In the band’s defense, I guess the songs are listenable enough, but is it really that much of a compliment when every riff, every lead, every note is stolen from Blind Guardian, Iron Savior or Persuader? All the instruments are played well, yeah, but is that really much of a compliment when every member of this band is a veteran of the genre? None of these songs evoke anything but a yawn and a tired look at the track list to see how much of it is left. They spit some fire with “Empire,” with its big chorus, but then you get the awful “Ballad of Susan,” which sounds like the worst Disney ballad ever written, and you just wonder what the fuck happened. Let’s just face it, people; these German Power Metal vets have run out of steam. If this is the best they can put together when they have four years and a big label production on their side, it’s pretty safe to say that there’s no point in really wasting your time with Of Doom and Death. An album so devoid of originality that it actually sucks out all the creativity of any room it’s played in. Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com |
| Savage Circus - Of Doom And Death - 70% |
| Written by ThrashManiacAYD
on October 27th, 2009
|
| I have a hard time working out if a band like Savage Circus should be applauded for their dedication to a particular style or chastised for not bothering to move on. The band were formed in 2004 following the departure of Thomen Stauch from Blind Guardian with his dissatisfaction at the direction the band had recently taken. He filled a line-up around him before leaving himself for good in 2007, with the result being a band that sound EXACTLY like Blind Guardian yet with no BG members contained within, thus rendering them a bit of a rip-off in my mind. I have no prior knowledge of 2005's "Dreamland Manor" but I know for sure after a few listens that 2009's "Of Doom And Death" features every key element of what has proven so successful for BG - soaring vocal melodies with plentiful choral backing, and speedy melodically-driven riffery. This formula is used throughout "Of Doom..." with the exception of the curious "Ballad Of Susan", a balladic number so cheesy it feels like it's come out of a Europe b-side recording session with the members of Queen giving some energetic backing vocals. Rather like the father band themselves, many of Savage Circus' best moments come in the form of the choral climaxes where songs rise to levels of significant majesty and grandeur. It might seem a subtle difference but those moments are the reasons why I feel Blind Guardian are just about the only listenable power metal band going. But, yes, this review isn't for BG, I must remember that, though such sentiments could also be spared for SC. The title track, "The Ordeal" and "From The Ashes" all reap the rewards previously sown and even as a self-confessed power metal hater I find myself nodding along to the jovial happiness that springs unbound in Jens Carlsson's suspiciously Hansi Kurch-like vocals. Dissecting the songs on offer to the nth degree to me seems futile, so let's put it this way - ignoring the soporific "Ballad Of Susan" and what could be described as a closing outro in "Dreamland", we have 7 decent Blind Guardian-worshipping metal numbers here, and as anyone who knows their metal could attest, that is no bad thing when the performance and strength in conviction is of a high level like this. The main question which only time will answer remains though: will BG fans appreciate, and buy, this, or will Savage Circus remain merely a band destined to fill the gaps between albums of their undoubted favourite band? Originally written for Rockfreaks.net |